Hello 2007, bye bye Saddam - 01/01/07

To all those behind us time-zone wise, hello from next year.

LOCAL NEWS

Not sure if I mentioned the accident near Western Springs that killed three youths. The driver turned out to be on a learner's license, with a record for evading police, hitting power poles, and failed attempts to make a car fly. He is survived by a 6 month old foetus that will never meet it's moronic father. I know my emotional detachment from such things is possibly a little callous, and I suppose my view could change if one of my children started exhibiting similar behaviour, but I am going to do my best to ensure that this does not happen.

A large twin engine plane made an unplanned landing on mudflats, only the pilot was aboard, and he was fine. Then the CAA cancelled his license and that of the company he worked for. Sounds like the company is in a bit of a mess. Wouldn't want to fly with them.

There was flooding in Ashburton on Saturday. Things got wet.

There was a bizarre incident where a woman at the front of a boat was hit by a flying dolphin. The dolphin was frolicking near the boat and jumped over the pointy end, collecting her on the way through. There has been tons of news about the woman, but little information on whether the dolphin is seeking counselling. Rumours that she was eating an unsafe tuna sandwich at the time are unsubstantiated.

A local Mcdonalds was suffering when it turned out an employee had hepatitis.

An out of control milk tanker hit three houses before it stopped. The driver was choking on a lolly, there are now plans to ban eating lollies whilst driving. The second house has a tanker shaped hole right through it. The third contained a man with a broken ankle, who gained a broken leg when the truck arrived (he could run very fast because of the ankle). But proving that every grey cloud has a silver lining, the driver also set a record for the largest milkshake.

WORLD NEWS

The passing of James Brown was way more interesting than the passing of Gerald Ford, even if some of the younger set think he had a motor vehicle named after him. James Brown was pretty cool.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday, the world awaited the reaction. Some papers said NZers would have to pay to see the footage of the hanging. I find this to be most distasteful. It wasn't a boxing match. It should not be available at all.

SPORT

Well, the Poms lost by 99 runs in three days. They don't look that good against the Aussies. I am not sure they are crap, but I know that the Aussies are pretty good at making other teams look like crap.

Some upsets in premiere league, Man Utd beat Reading 3-2, Liverpool beat Spurs 1-0, Man City beat West Ham 1-0, Sheff Utd beat the Arse 1-0 (nice), Chelsea had 2-2 with Fulham (good god), and Everton actioned a 3-0 thumping of poor old Newcastle.

The Black Caps managed to squeak home on last ball to win the second ODI against Sri Lanka. They needed about three runs in last over. First five balls all went for nought. Scored four off last ball to clinch the win. They lost the first one despite getting what seemed like a good score to start.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah made me play a lot of volleyball. We also played a little tennis. Spent a few more days mellowing out and sleeping in the afternoons now and again.

Our trip back to Auckland was relatively uneventful. Traffic coming the other way was pretty heavy. The Kopu bridge is one-way, which is really quite bizarre for these days. They turned off the signals and did things manually, letting traffic go one way for a good ten minutes. The queues were pretty long. As we got closer and closer to Auckland the weather got worse and worse.

Since returning home, I've been grinding away at my list. I made a list, that I lost. Then I made another on the way home from Coromandel in the car and Diana kept it. Despite this, I have been working away at it. Fixed the bike (with help from Paul), filled the garden bin, emptied the trailer, and rationalised things in the garage. We moved the TV into Rory's room and built a shelf in the space it occupied.

Jono popped in one afternoon, over here for Christmas. He told me that Steph is about to have her second child, about six years after the first one, which is quite a gap. Was good to see him.

Have managed a couple of swims with Hannah. Rory came the second time, fitting us into his busy schedule. He did a timed 50m in 29.25s which is not too shabby. Hannah did 25m in 16.98s which is one of her fastest. Her style has changed, used to be so beautiful and now is definitely more of a water polo style.

We went to the Edmonds for New Year, it was also their 20th wedding anniversary. Saw some of the usual suspects, many of whom we have hardly seen in the past year. We are off with the Edmonds and Lanes to Tauranga in about a week.

Well, that about sums things up for the last week in 2006. Fingers crossed that 2007 isn't quite so busy.
Have a good New Year